General Assembly

Conjuring images of the potentially “monstrous” effects of global nuclear fallout, speakers at the opening of the 2012 substantive session of the United Nations Disarmament Commission stressed that, after a dozen fruitless consecutive sessions, the body could waste no more time remaining gripped by deadlock or mired in repeated iterations of national interests.

The Human Rights Committee concluded its 104th session today, with a discussion about how to transform the “unwieldy” process under which States updated Geneva-based treaty bodies on their adherence to international human rights instruments into a rational, predictable system that motivated them to submit fewer — and more timely — reports.

The Human Rights Committee today adopted its annual report to the General Assembly, deciding to include — as an annex — a request for additional resources to deal with a backlog of communications received under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, pending a revision of that document’s language.

The Human Rights Committee this afternoon examined the progress report of its Special Rapporteur for Follow-up on Concluding Observations, which provides a country-by-country update on correspondence with States parties between the Committee’s 103rd and 104th sessions on implementing the expert body’s recommendations on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Human Rights Committee today adopted its report on follow-up on individual communications, containing an update on individual communications filed with the expert body under the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 3 and 4 April at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The theme of the Meeting is “The question of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention facilities: legal and political implications”.

Without serious, concrete intervention by year’s end to stop Israel’s policies and strategies to systematically and deliberately destroy the two-State solution, prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians would be ruined, a top Palestinian peace negotiator today told the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

Decrying the “hideous mechanics” of a trade that once spanned the Atlantic Ocean, senior United Nations and Government officials today marked the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade by urging vigilance against lingering racism and calling for action to combat modern-day forms of slavery and exploitation.

The Human Rights Committee continued discussion of its working methods today, adopting a paper on its relationship with non-governmental organizations. Prior to the adoption, the Committee carried out a paragraph-by-paragraph review of the document, which had been drafted by Cornelius Flinterman, expert from the Netherlands, and Iulia Antoanella Motoc, expert from Romania.

Wrapping up its week-long session today, the Preparatory Committee unanimously adopted its draft report, as orally revised, for submission to the Second Review Conference on the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons.